Branding Case Study - AirBnB for Pets!
The Brief
Katie and Jen were tired of picking between luxury, expensive resorts or pet prisons for their little French Bulldog when they went away on holiday. They wanted to negate this issue by creating an AirBnB style app for pets! They requested that this brand appeals to all kinds of pet owners and those who want to become pet hosts - not just cats and dogs.
The Demographic
The couple wanted to aim the app at pet owners who are happy to spend a bit extra on life’s necessities and luxuries, after a fair amount of research. They are highly organised individuals that have a good work/life balance. They are quietly modest as opposed to boastful. Positive people that love their pets.
Research
Having a deeper dive into these highly organised pet owners there are some traits that are common amongst them:
Researchers - they read up on their desired area of spending prior to any purchases
List Makers - there’s rarely a day that goes by without them making a list. This could be appertaining to home, work, shopping or anything of that nature
Family Time - those with families make time in their schedule to get some good quality time in with the family
Reading - avid readers, this might could be the aforementioned research or any kind of fiction or non-fiction book
Planning Ahead - this could be a rainy day fund, or just making sure they have all their ducks in a row before executing a task
Order - they enjoy keeping things tidy, perhaps not to an OCD level but they do like to keep things in place and clean
Routine - there is not a huge deal of variance in their day-to-day. Keeping a routine helps them keep on top of everything at hand
Pirotising - making sure they keep the important things at the top of their list to reduce stress
Diary Use - accounting for their time is integral to keeping things in order, aiding routine and understanding where they have free time
Leaving room for error - these are not the kind of people that are under the illusion that everything will go to plan, breathing space is key
Competition
Looking into the competition there had some interesting findings:
Most competitors fell into two categories. Either a vacation style resort for all pets or a matchmaker for dogs and hosts, none mix both
Some of the brands looked a tad generic and DogVacay really is the best looking one, but that is located in the US
By creating a more modern visual language, there was room to stand out of a pretty mundane crowd
There was a need for clarity when it comes to what pets are covered, adding another point of difference
There was not much sign of fun or quirkiness in any of these brands that connect hosts
Additional Research Notes
Only 2% of the population own a rabbit, after cats (24%) and dogs (26%). The other most popular pets include fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, birds and lizards. If you own a larger animal, such as a horse, you are not likely to use this service but it could be a niche to look into later down the line.
With reference to the owner’s mindset, a regular FAQ is ‘how will I know my pet is happy.’ There is a desire to know that the pet is being looked after and settled.
These highly organised individuals will try their utmost to research the sitter as much as possible prior to booking. The demographic will also have routines that will extend to their pet and will expect that to be continued while they are away.
There is a need for all necessary information to be clear, concise and readily available.
Idea Generation
In this section, the aim was to identify the business core brand values. Spider diagrams, word association and other techniques are used in order to get a better understanding of the aims of the business and give the brand some direction. Over the course of this exploration stage, there are some words that are highlighted to indicate they need attention. From this, three overall brand values are picked and then it’s time to get to work with some concepts.
Playful
+
Inclusive
+
Meticulous
After the two concepts had been identified with an initial concept idea, three visual key words and a chosen name, then came the opportunity to explore both concepts further. This included naming rationale, with backup names, logo inspirations and initial logo ideas. Below are the slides for both concepts and how they looked at this stage of the process.
Reviewing both concepts
It was clear at this point that neither names were working. so further development needed to go into this. After researching the word ‘pet’ in other languages the Japanese for pet came up: petto. Petto sounded warm and fun. It has the word ‘pet’ in it that would help indicate what the brand is about. Keeping the name to one word makes it snappier, easier to remember and a great way of keeping things simple. Petto it is then.
Using some of the visual key words from both prior concepts was the best way forward: playful, together and holidays. These three words would give direction to the visual aspect of the brand. Added to this, there was a new brand idea, or tag line, that helped cement the brand.
“Send your pets on a holiday that’s just as fun as yours.”
Logo
Now that we had a name, some core brand and visual keywords and a brand idea, it was time to get into some design development. Would there be a logo icon for the brand or would it be a type-based logo?
The chosen wordmark
Once all of the logos had been sketched and input into the computer they are then refined down to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Do they give the right feel for the brand? Do some look like the nether regions of someone’s body? Would the type be just as impactful?
The chosen wordmark encapsulates the playfulness that is essential in the brand values. But the work is not done there. There is still an issue with colour. The main colours are fine, but fine is not really the desired outcome when it comes to branding. Back to the drawing board to make, what seems like, hundreds of iterations of colour that could be used to make sure that they sit right with the branding and work well across all assets.
The style tile is a way of showing the logo, values and colours all in one place. It gives a chance to see how the logo would be used in-app form and the fonts that have been chosen to help bring the brand to life.
Roll Out
How does a brand then formulate into real-world scenarios? Roll out. Posters, apps, websites, all these things are where the brand is put to use. Using the chosen fonts, style and guidelines that have been put into place we then created all the assets to show off the brand.
These three posters incapsulate the brand well. The first shows off the playful side of petto with an illustrated image of someone clearly on holiday, enjoying the pool, with a cartoon bunny rabbit head. The second evokes the inclusiveness of the brand; the owners, sitters and the pets themselves. The final poster hits the mark with the meticulous aspect of the brand. It shows the checklist that will be synonymous with the core demographic.
Finally, here are some screenshots of the app. The left shows the camera function that sends the owners images of the pets, direct to their app. The second shows the checklist function that aids the owner to input all their desired info prior to going away so that they can feel fully content that the sitter has all the necessary information. The final image shows the chat function. There is no need to swap numbers frivolously. In most cases, the chat feature will be enough for the owner to check in when they need to and get updates, as and when they want.
Conclusion
The branding is strong and has a cohesive feel throughout. The outcome met the brief and there is a real framework to let the brand grow. The idea behind this case study was to show the process, my process, of how a brand is formulated from start to finish. It is important to remember that branding is not what you think it is, it’s what they think it is. Every person has a subjective view of each brand they interact with and its the designer, or branding agencies, job to bring that to life and give it the best chance of moving forward.
